T+94 Scree, scree, scree

BOX SCORE	8/9/2024
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	11.9	13-17	^
Platelets	165	140-375	^
ANC	4360	1800-8300	^

I'm sitting in the "living room" of our Hobbit Hole. The window by my chair is open, and I am listening to a couple of Stellar (blue) Jays having a conversation. Who knows what they are chattering about, but chattering they are. The Jays with their scratchy, squeaky voices kind of remind me of a couple of people bickering. I noticed that there seem to be three or four "phrases" in this Jay language. 

1) Scree, scree, scree, scree

2) Scree, scree, scree, scree, scree

3) Scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree

4) Scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree

If only I had an English-Jay, Jay-English dictionary! The yammering makes me think of how delightful it will be when this election year has passed. It seems to mimic the noise coming from both sides of the aisle. Just throw in a few "Hitlers" here and there, and it would seem to be indistinguishable. You'd think that if every candidate on both sides is "Hitler," that the politicians would be able to stop calling one another names and start having meaningful conversations. But alas. 

Mostly what we hear is a lot of hyperbole. Now hyperbole has its place in communication, but in my mind, that place is to emphasize a point and focus attention on the importance of something. But if you use nothing but hyperbole, then the important stuff just disappears in among the less important stuff. 

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus tells the people      

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30)

Do you think Jesus literally meant for us to mutilate our bodies? Could it be that, instead, he only wanted us to understand how important sin is and how utterly devastating it is? At least that's how I read it. 

I can think of some hyperbolic terms I could use about our journey through AML and the process of bone marrow transplant (BMT), but I don't tend to look at it as being worthy of that kind of rhetoric. Everyone who has ever trod the earth has faced challenges. It is not the particular challenge we face that is so important, for each challenge consumes the heart and mind when it comes. What is truly important is how we deal with the challenge. There is a tendency in our culture to feel the need to deal with every challenge alone, never reaching out for help. But the Lord has taught me otherwise. 

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that he had some affliction that he referred to as "a thorn in my flesh." He tells them:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Sometimes, our help comes from the Lord in more earthly ways. Take for instance the help coming from our neighbors in maintaining our home in our absence. We prayed about our concerns involved with leaving our home for four months, and you know what? The next thing we knew, our neighbors were clambering for ways they might help us! We didn't even need to ask them. My first impulse was to decline, not wanting to burden them, but eventually, God impressed on me what a blessing it would be for me and Jill to have that support, and even more important, what a blessing it would be for our neighbors to be able to "do something" for us in our time of need. 

We heard from Tom and Debbie yesterday that they are planning to move our patio furniture from the garage to the patio before we get home. That is not an earthshaking offer on the surface of it, but it will be a blessing to all four of us, and that is earthshaking. The greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. Tom and Debbie are good at that. So are Jared and Morgan and Wayne and Carole and Rick and Vicky and Joan and Colleen and Kevin and Sue and Emily and Jerry and Ruth. (There are dozens more I could add to this list, and they are spread across our town and our nation and the world, but this group lives close by our home and has been the Lord's hands and feet in our time of need.)

All of these people come from different walks of life and different backgrounds. Each of them is unique as an individual, but together we are a neighborhood and we share joys and sorrows and laughs and tears. That is loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2)

So, if you have a burden, maybe it's time to ask your neighbor to help you carry it, and then return the favor. That is the way of God's kingdom, and I recommend it because it is the way of peace. 

Our time in "exile" is coming to an end. A week from today we will return to Dallas. We look forward to seeing our wonderful neighbors who have helped us carry our burden all these months, and we look forward to helping them carry theirs. 

In the meantime, we have been dealing with the part of our challenges that only Jill and I can manage, and the payoff is that we will be able to return to our little part of heaven on earth. 

I found my English-Jay, Jay-English dictionary. It turns out that, "Scree, scree, scree, scree. Scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree, scree," Is Jaybird talk for, " Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." (Galatians 6:2-3) 

Even raspy chattering can be full of grace, and that is sufficient for me!